The Glorious Revolution of 1688 was the culminating point of a centuries-long battle between the English monarchy and the British parliament. Earlier in the seventeenth century, Parliamentarians had defeated Royalists in the English Civil War, but the rule of Parliament proved too puritanical for the English people, so the crown was restored, but only temporarily. By 1688, Parliament had grown weary with the ruling James II and "invited" William and Mary to seize power on the condition that they pledge to abide by constitutional laws that placed Parliament above the king. This system of constitutional monarchy has existed in Britain ever since with Parliament constantly and steadily gaining in power and influence.

Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin were the chief advisors to the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, respectively. They were collectively responsible for suppressing the power of the French nobility and increasing the absolute power of the French monarchy. The French monarchy under Louis XIV is generally considered the supreme example of absolutism in seventeenth-century Europe.

Cardinal Mazarin was the Chief Minister to Louis XIV throughout the King's childhood and early adult life. Mazarin was responsible for crushing a revolt of the French nobility and for strengthening the power of the French monarchy.

The chaos of the French Revolution created an immense power vacuum in Paris and the infant republican French nation. This vacuum was filled, in spectacular style, by a Corsican member of the French military called Napoleon Bonaparte. He would go on to become one of the most famous and succesful conquerors in European history before extending himself too far and getting exiled not once, but twice.

King James I inherited a throne that was at odds with the world’s one dominant superpower at the time, Spain. James, fearing Spanish invasion, wanted to make peace with the Catholic kingdom, but the English Parliament, entirely dominated by Protestants, favored war. Eventually, Parliament would win out and James and the English would side with the French against the Spanish.

The formation of the French Estates General in the fourteenth century by French King Philip IV led to the rise of the French nation-state. The Estates General was a form of rudimentary representative democracy in which certain members of society were able to influence the political direction of the country.

The French Revolution initially replaced a monarchy with a democratic government founded on universal suffrage; however, this so-called “First Republic” proved ineffective and was quickly replaced by the Directory. The Directory was a group of powerful and wealthy conservative-minded men who replaced the National Assembly and the Convention and began undoing many of the changes wrought by the Revolution.

Prior to the French Revolution, the French parliament was called the Estates General and was formed of three groups: the First Estate, composed of the nobility, which had the most power; the Second Estate, formed of the clergy; and the Third Estate, formed of just about everyone else. The National Assembly grew out of the Third Estate and presided over the initial phases of government during the French Revolution.

The Divine Right of Kings is a political philosophy that justifies or supports Absolutism. It suggests that kings are divinely ordained by God and that therefore to rebel against their authority is to rebel against the will of God. It was widely influential from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century as a legitimizing theory of government for absolutist monarchies from France to Russia. Popular sovereignty says that the only legitimate means of government comes from the approval of the people. As such, it may be understood as the legitimizing political philosophy for Constitutionalism.